Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Harry is excited to go his school, Hogwards, for the third year, after the adventures he has done in the second year. Harry is now every student's favorite, as what he has done has made the school Headmaster, Professor Dumbledore, to give a school treat of canceling all the exams! Before he is going to start he finds out that a prisoner who is heavily armed has escaped a prison and that everyone in the Muggle world is warned about him.

Disgusting things happen that Harry leaves his aunt's house and soon he finds out that the prisoner who had escaped is not a Muggle but is a very powerful wizard and an expert in dark magic, who had killed 12 people in a single curse. And also this prisoner is the only one who had ever escaped from the Prison of Azkaban, a prison for witches and wizards heavily guarded by Dementors: a magical creature which sucks the happiness out of a person and whose kiss will suck the soul out of the body.

How could anyone escape from such a prison? And in the history, the prisoner is the only one who had ever escaped. And to his horror, Harry finds out that, the prisoner has escaped to kill Harry! Harry is not only chased by this killer, but also by a death omen; a gigantic dog. Prophecy says that Harry has to encounter the Grim (the gigantic dog) and that he is going to die soon! The idea of Hogwards being the safest place also becomes false as the prisoner has already entered into the school and Dementors are guarding the school.

Harry becomes Dementors most favorite target as Dementors easily attack those who have a tragic memory. Harry almost dies in many instances due to the attack of the Dementors and narrowly saved. How Harry is going to tackle the Dementors?, how he is gong to face the Grim?, how he is going to escape from the prisoner? is the rest of the story. An excellent novel with an excellent twist. The story goes slowly in the start and at the end it goes in light's speed. If you have not read this book yet, I strongly recommend you to read it (after reading I and II part) and share your comments.

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Now Harry is in the second year, of seven years at Hogwards, The school for Wizards and Witches, after the greatest adventure he had done in his first year, encountering Lord Voldemort face to face. Lord Voldemort is the greatest Wizard of Dark Magic, so powerful and dangerous that no one could even address him by his name, addressing him as *You Know Who* or *He Who Must Not Be Named* [and thank God he is not He Who Must Not Be Typed :)]. So, after conquering, or we can say escaping from, Lord Voldemort for the second time, Harry becomes even more famous in Hogwards.

But in the second year there are more dangers and threats awaiting him. Harry faces much more trouble even before going to Hogwards. But soon, a doubt arises to the whole school: "Whether the threat is for Harry or the threat is by Harry". The Chamber of Secret is opened again, which by myth has a dangerous monster locked in it which will kill the enemies of the heir of Slytherin; one of the founder of Hogwards, a very powerful Wizard who dislikes Muggles [non-magic creatures, humans :)]. Strangely those who disturb, or seem to disturb Harry are petrified one by one.

At some point of time, Harry uncovers some truths that make himself to doubt whether he is the heir. All the student fear Harry, talk bad about him, sing bad about him, loathe him. Harry after some efforts find out that, a very trusted staff is the one who has opened the chamber last time! Before he could do any further investigation, his close friend is also petrified. And one more! What happens and what is going to happen then becomes a million dollar question.

How Harry is going to overcome this and how he is going to face the deadly monster that is in the Chamber Of Secret is the rest of the story. A very unpredictable and extremely interesting adventurous story is this. Success of Harry Potter books is that it has many aspects like, sentiment, thrill, horror, who-done-it puzzle, friendship, fight of good and evil, school time adventure, etc. A must read novel! If you find many terms not understandable, it is time you start to read the HP novels. So, read this novel if not already read and comment about this book after you reading it.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

"Not a Penny More Not a Penny Less" is the first novel from Jeffrey Archer, one of the greatest story tellers of this modern time. This story is about a criminal who uses share market to cheat people and earn millions of dollars. In one of such occasions he messes up with a great mathematician, Stephan who invest about $250, 000 and becomes penniless. Not like other people who regret for losing, he wants to take revenge on the criminal, Harvey. Stephan later finds that there are three more people, who do not know each other mutually, who have invested a great amount of money.

With little investigation he finds the other three people to be an art dealer Jean-Pierre, a doctor Robin and a land lord, James who wishes to become an actor. Some how he manages to co-ordinate a meeting with all the three and they four decides to cheat Harvey and get all their money back, not a penny more; not a penny less. Though this is some what dramatic, to have mutually unknown persons meet up and agree to take revenge on an expert in swindling, it is acceptable; after all, anyone could be brain washed.

Everyone except James comes with a plan that could get some money from Harvey; when James meets a stunningly gorgeous a-typical-most-beautiful-girl-in-novels and falls in love with her at the first sight. When everyone dies to device a plan to get their money back, James devices plans to attract her and date with her, and like everyone else, he succeeds in his mission.

All the four of this team take part in others' plan and they somehow manage to get 3/4 of their total money loss; only missing the James part of contributing his 1/4 of the money. And James becomes the hero of the novel by an extra-ordinary twist in the end and he manages to get his team his contribution. There are more good news in the ends and the novel ends with a happy ending.

A good novel which is worth of the time spent in reading that. Though all the three plans are somewhat guessable, the twists and turns that happens when the plans are executed and how they fail because of lack of contingency plans and how they recover quickly from that are interesting. So, if possible read this novel and share your comments.